HITGEN AND CANCER RESEARCH UK’S MANCHESTER INSTITUTE
ENTER LICENCE AGREEMENT IN LUNG CANCER
Cancer Research UK, Cancer Research Technology(CRT), the charity’s commercial arm, and HitGen Ltd, a privately held biotechcompany focused on early drug discovery, announced today that they have enteredinto a licence agreement to develop a novel class of drugs against lung cancer.
The work will be carried out by scientists at CancerResearch UK’s Drug Discovery Unit at The University of Manchester, after thenew family of compounds was identified using HitGen’s leading technologyplatform. This involved screening vast DNA encoded libraries, containing manyhundreds of millions of small molecules with drug-like properties synthesizedon chemically diverse scaffolds. A number of new small molecule leads for thisimportant therapeutic target in lung cancer nominated by Cancer Research UKwere revealed.
This is the first licence taken through the ongoingcollaboration between CRT, Cancer Research UK’s Manchester Institute DrugDiscovery Group and HitGen, who are eligible for milestone payments as theproject progresses.
Dr Jin Li, CEO of HitGen, said: “We’re delighted toannounce this significant project milestone. We look forward to seeing theprogress made by the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute.”
Dr Donald Ogilvie, head of drug discovery at theCancer Research UK Manchester Institute at The University of Manchester, said:“We’re very pleased to work with HitGen to find promising leads against thesemore difficult targets that may otherwise not be developed.”
“As part of the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centreof Excellence, we’re determined to get new lung cancer treatments to patientsquicker. Identifying this promising candidate drug offers the potential to helpboost survival from this devastating disease.”
ENDS
Formedia enquiries contact Ailsa Stevens in the Cancer Research UK press office on+4420 3469 8300 or, out of hours, on+447050 264 059.
Notes to editors
* The Drug Discovery Unit builds upon fundamental biology discoveries madewithin the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC). The University ofManchester, including the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, joinedforces with Cancer Research UK and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust to formthe MCRC, allowing doctors and scientists to work closely together to turnscientific advances into patient benefits sooner. See: https://www.mcrc.manchester.ac.uk/Our-Research/Research-Groups/Drug-Discovery-Unit
About HitGen Ltd
HitGen is an innovation driven life science company based in Chengdu, Chinaand Houston, Texas. HitGen has established a unique platform for early drugdiscovery research. Our DNA encoded libraries contain more than 10 billionnovel, diverse, drug-like compounds. The library is founded on many hundreds ofdistinct chemical scaffolds, designed with tractable chemistry and provenresults for finding drug leads against targets from known and novel proteinclasses.
For further information, please contact
Dr. Jin Li, Chairman & CEO， HitGen Ltd. Tel:+86 28 85197385 (ext.8001)
Dr. Barry Morgan, Chief Scientific Officer，HitGen Ltd. Tel: +15088409646
About Cancer Research Technology
Cancer Research Technology (CRT) is a specialist commercialisation anddevelopment company, which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer researchfor the benefit of cancer patients. CRT works closely with leadinginternational cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectualproperty arising from their research and to establish links with commercialpartners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of newcancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies. CRT is awholly owned subsidiary of Cancer Research UK, the world's leading cancercharity dedicated to saving lives through research. Further information aboutCRT can be found at www.cancertechnology.com and here: https://www.cancertechnology.co.uk/how-we-are-advancing-discoveries-beat-cancer
About Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.
Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated.
Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival rates in the UK double in the last forty years.
Today, 2 in 4 people survive cancer. Cancer Research UK’s ambition is to accelerate progress so that 3 in 4 people will survive cancer within the next 20 years.
Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
For further information about Cancer Research UK'swork or to find out how to support the charity, please call +44 300 123 1022 orvisit www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
